Ultrathin 2 nm gold as ideal impedance-matched absorber for infrared light

Thermal detectors are a cornerstone of infrared (IR) and terahertz (THz) technology due to their broad spectral range. These detectors call for suitable broad spectral absorbers with minimalthermal mass. Often this is realized by plasmonic absorbers, which ensure a high absorptivity butonly for a narrow spectral band. Alternativly, a common approach is based on impedance-matching the sheet resistance of a thin metallic film to half the free-space impedance. Thereby, it is possible to achieve a wavelength-independent absorptivity of up to 50 %, depending on the dielectric properties of the underlying substrate. However, existing absorber films typicallyrequire a thickness of the order of tens of nanometers, such as titanium nitride (14 nm), whichcan significantly deteriorate the response of a thermal transducers. Here, we present the application of ultrathin gold (2 nm) on top of a 1.2 nm copper oxide seed layer as an effective IR absorber. An almost wavelength-independent and long-time stable absorptivity of 47(3) %, ranging from 2 $\mu$m to 20 $\mu$m, could be obtained and is further discussed. The presented gold thin-film represents analmost ideal impedance-matched IR absorber that allows a significant improvement of state-of-the-art thermal detector technology

Acquired resistance to oxaliplatin is not directly associated with increased resistance to DNA damage in SK-N-ASrOXALI4000, a newly established oxaliplatin-resistant sub-line of the neuroblastoma cell line SK-N-AS

The formation of acquired drug resistance is a major reason for the failure of anti-cancer therapies after initial response. Here, we introduce a novel model of acquired oxaliplatin resistance, a sub-line of the non-MYCN-amplified neuroblastoma cell line SK-N-AS that was adapted to growth in the presence of 4000 ng/mL oxaliplatin (SK-N-ASrOXALI4000). SK-N-ASrOXALI4000 cells displayed enhanced chromosomal aberrations compared to SK-N-AS, as indicated by 24-chromosome fluorescence in situ hybridisation. Moreover, SK-N-ASrOXALI4000 cells were resistant not only to oxaliplatin but also to the two other commonly used anti-cancer platinum agents cisplatin and carboplatin. SK-N-ASrOXALI4000 cells exhibited a stable resistance phenotype that was not affected by culturing the cells for 10 weeks in the absence of oxaliplatin. Interestingly, SK-N-ASrOXALI4000 cells showed no cross resistance to gemcitabine and increased sensitivity to doxorubicin and UVC radiation, alternative treatments that like platinum drugs target DNA integrity. Notably, UVC-induced DNA damage is thought to be predominantly repaired by nucleotide excision repair and nucleotide excision repair has been described as the main oxaliplatin-induced DNA damage repair system. SK-N-ASrOXALI4000 cells were also more sensitive to lysis by influenza A virus, a candidate for oncolytic therapy, than SK-N-AS cells. In conclusion, we introduce a novel oxaliplatin resistance model. The oxaliplatin resistance mechanisms in SK-N-ASrOXALI4000 cells appear to be complex and not to directly depend on enhanced DNA repair capacity. Models of oxaliplatin resistance are of particular relevance since research on platinum drugs has so far predominantly focused on cisplatin and carboplatin

Assessment of the Impact of Oil and Gas Resource Exploration on the Environment of Selected Communities in Delta State, Nigeria

This Paper assessed the "Impact of Oil and Gas Resource Exploration on the Environment" of Delta State oil producing communities of Nigeria. It examined the problems associated with Oil exploration and its mitigation. Primary and Secondary data were used to source data for the set objectives. The theoretical framework was based on the resource curse theory and the environmental externalities theory. It was established that various problems such as oil spillage, retardation of vegetation growth, soil infertility, ill-health to members of the community, displacement of the people of the area, constant protestation of host communities, socio-economic deprivation, and perceived marginalization of the people are associated with oil resource exploration. This research concludes that the oil bearing communities have not adequately been compensated for harm done them through degradation of the ecosystem caused by several years of oil exploration. Their oil resource wealth has been turned to oil resource curse as they are disempowered, and condemned to perpetual underdevelopment. It is recommended that Federal Government should exert maximum efforts in assuring strict compliance of its legal instruments by the oil participating industries for a sustainable development in the region

MEDIA, TERRORISM REPORTING AND LESSONS IN AWARENESS SUSTENANCE: the Nigerian newspapers’ coverage of the Chibok girls’ abduction

This study investigated how Nigerian newspapers contributed to sensitizing and sustaining public attention on the issue of the schoolgirls that were abducted by the Boko Haram group in Chibok, northeastern Nigeria. The study analyzed the direction/slant, frequency, and prominence of news stories, feature articles, editorials, special reports, interpretative articles, and news analysis on the abduction as published in three major Nigerian newspapers. Using the content analytical technique, the study found that there was no day in the period under investigation that the issue of the abducted Chibok girls did not get attention in the press. The study also found that the press discharged its corporate social responsibility by setting and sustaining public consciousness on the injustice and inhumanity of the abduction. Furthermore, a connection was established between the unrelenting crusade mounted by non-governmental organizations, especially the #BringBackOurGirls movement, for the release of the abducted girls, sustained public interest provided by the Press, and the eventual government action that culminated in the release of 164 out of the 276 girls initially abducted. This study, therefore, recommends continued publicity by the media in its role as a social crusader to ensure that the remaining Chibok and other abductees are rescued from their Boko Haram abductors

Removing impediments to african exports

No Abstract

Central Banking in Sub-Saharan Africa: Introduction and Overview

Abstract African central banks have covered an extraordinary distance since the early 1990s-closing the gap, in the process, between their own policy challenges and those of richer-country central banks. Some striking differences are nonetheless easily missed, amid the many parallels between central banking reforms in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and those in the industrial and emerging-market economies. The abandonment of soft pegs in lowincome SSA, for example, had less to do with capital mobility than with the failures of exchange control systems under pressure from fiscal imbalances and external shocks. Fiscal and quasi-fiscal demands, in turn, have almost certainly been more important than conventional stabilisation objectives as potential sources of inflation bias in SSA. Money-based disinflation programmes, to take a final example-often supported by tight fiscal rules under IMF conditionality-do not appear to have involved costly sacrifices of output, outside of South Africa. These observations, and more in the papers collected here, suggest that the distinctive structural and institutional features of low-income countries may have distinctive implications for the design and conduct of monetary policy. Collectively